RANGERS moved six points clear at the top of the SPL but their continuing inability to kill teams off must remain a worry for manager Alex McLeish.
Thankfully for Rangers, Hearts were even poorer in terms of shots on target and for the fourth match in succession this season they failed to register a goal past Stefan Klos.
For fans of the so-called third best team in Scotland who had made the journey through from Edinburgh it was not thrilling fare.
In the build-up to the match, Hearts boss Craig Levein had appeared on television, radio and in print warning referee John Underhill not to be influenced by the Ibrox crowd.
As a piece of reverse psychology it seemed to have worked to perfection as the match officials seemed reluctant to punish some crunching Hearts tackling as well as making several curious decisions.
The most contentious of these came after 23 minutes. Claudio Caniggia – making a rare start – fastened onto Barry Ferguson’s pass from midfield and hared in on goal before Alan Maybury clipped his heels.
The ball rolled on to Ronald de Boer who belted the ball into the empty net. Remarkably, the Dutchman’s strike was ruled off for offside and, to compound matters, no penalty was given for the foul on Caniggia.
The Argentinean had been Rangers’ main attacking threat – in the first half especially – as he rampaged with menace down the left flank every time he received the ball.
He glanced a header from Mikel Arteta’s pin-point free kick narrowly wide of Tepi Moilanen’s goal before he was brought down again as he squeezed between two static Hearts defenders and looked to hare in on goal.
Ref Underhill again shook his head and failed to give Caniggia the foul although why the former Dundee striker would tumble to the ground in such a promising position remained a mystery.
Eventually, Hearts’ heavy-handed tactics were to be their downfall. Neil Macfarlane hauled down Arteta and the Spaniard’s free kick was headed past his own goalkeeper by Severin to give Rangers the lead.
The Light Blues were without influential defenders Craig Moore and Mo Ross but the centre-back pairing of Bob Malcolm and Lorenzo Amoruso were rarely troubled throughout the 90 minutes.
Mark de Vries had a powerful early drive well clutched by Klos before the German goalkeeper tipped Jean-Louis Valois’ curling effort over the crossbar.
Beyond that, the defence was little troubled, allowing Amoruso to amble forward to offer his assistance at set-pieces.
The Italian defender had battered home a powerful free kick last weekend at Dunfermline and he was inches away from a repeat of that strike when his powerful shot whistled just past the post.
The pressure was all with Rangers but a second goal that would surely have killed off Hearts continued to elude them as chance after chance went a-begging.
Peter Lovenkrands – in his first appearance since the winter break – and Shota Arveladze were brought on in place of the tiring Caniggia and Michael Mols and the Dane almost made an immediate impact when his cross nearly reached de Boer at the back post for what would have been a tap-in.
With only a one-goal lead to appease them, the Ibrox crowd was getting increasingly frustrated as opportunities continued to be passed up and Ferguson hooked a shot over the target after a neat 1-2 between Kevin Muscat and Arteta.
Arveladze then hit a weak shot wide before Moilanen made an incredible stop from de Boer’s stinging volley at the back post after Lovenkrands had been unable to direct a header on target.
Steven Thompson, again sitting unselected in the stands, must have been wondering what he had to do to get a game as Rangers survived a late scare to consolidate their lead at the top of the table.
RANGERS: Klos; Muscat, Malcolm, Amoruso, Numan; Ricksen, Arteta, Ferguson(c); de Boer, Mols (Arveladze 69), Caniggia (Lovenkrands 63)
Subs not used: McGregor, Eggen, Hughes,
HEARTS: Moilanen; Maybury, Pressley, Webster, Mahe; MacFarlane (Simmons 72), Boyack (McKenna 72), Severin, Valois (Kirk 84); de Vries, Wales
Subs not used: Gordon, McCann
Booked: Mahe (13), de Vries (24), Pressley (35), Macfarlane (39), Webster (59), Maybury (61)
Referee: John Underhill
Attendance: 49,459
Man of the Match: Claudio Caniggia